Christopher C. Rootham

Chris Rootham is a partner with Nelligan O’Brien Payne, and practices in the Labour Law and Employment Law groups. He advises employees and trade unions in issues related to labour, constitutional law, administration, privacy, and personal information.

As the Director of Research for the firm, Chris assists all lawyers and consultants with complicated legal research. He currently co-teaches the Employment Law course at the University of Ottawa. He has also taught written advocacy to moot court students, participated in the Dean’s Research and Writing Fellows Program, and taught Labour Law at Queen’s University.

After Chris clerked at the Federal Court of Appeal, he completed a Masters of Labour Law degree at the London School of Economics.

Chris enjoys the puzzle of the law, piecing together and solving a problem using legal knowledge and mechanisms. He can often be found poring over law reports, and he is dedicated to remaining up-to-date with legal trends. Chris is committed to his clients, and always strives to be responsive and accessible to them.

Outside of the office, Chris likes to be involved in sports. He has curled for almost ten years, and is currently convener for the RA Centre for their mixed curling league. Chris also jogs and regularly plays Ultimate Frisbee.

If I am terminated with working notice and decide to work through that notice period, when can I file a claim for wrongful dismissal? A recent Ontario court case wrestled with this question, deciding that the deadline for employees to commence an action begins to run when their employer gives them “working notice.”

Mitigating your losses after being dismissed, such as making concerted efforts to find new employment, is important if you feel that the dismissal was unjust. However, a recent case has demonstrated that contextual factors do come into play when a court is evaluating the extent to which an employee has attempted to mitigate.

On October 13th, the Supreme Court of Canada granted leave to appeal in British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal v Schrenk. By granting leave to appeal, the Court is going to weigh in on the extent to which discrimination in employment is predicated on there being a power imbalance between the perpetrator and the victim of harassing behaviour.

In Ontario, as in most provinces, an employee can be terminated without cause so long as they are provided with and/or paid the appropriate amount of notice and severance, either in accordance with their employment contract or at common law (and, at a minimum, those sums pursuant to the Employment Standards Act). In comparison, the Supreme Court of Canada has finally confirmed in the seminal case of Wilson v. Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. (‘Wilson’), released yesterday, that federal employees may not be dismissed without cause.